This invention relates generally to customer analysis. More specifically, the invention relates to a method and system for tracking customer behavior.
It is generally desirable for vendors of goods and/or services to have as clear an understanding as possible of the demographics and behavior of their customers. Such information is useful in identifying behavior trends to evaluate the success of certain products and/or aspects of the environment provided by specific vendors. More generally, it is also desirable for larger establishments that may comprise multiple vendors, such as a shopping mall, to have a similarly clear understanding of the demographics and behavior of customers that visit the larger establishments.
One advantage of the internet as a means for providing goods and services is that customer movement may be tracked with relative ease. For example, customer profiles may be compiled by observing and recording the behaviors and preferences of individual customers as they navigate through the world wide web. In addition, it is possible to record each financial transaction that was actually consummated, making it possible to calculate a conversion efficiency. In the context of internet transactions, the conversion efficiency may be calculated as the number of clicks per financial transaction for a particular e-commerce site. This conversion efficiency effectively quantifies the attractiveness of a given site for consumers and is typically on the order of 0.1% for e-commence sites.
In the physical world, it is more difficult to track customer movement and therefore to compile a customer profile. One method that has been tried makes use of a customer loyalty program. With such a program, the customer effectively agrees with a store to provide buying information in exchange for incentive rewards. Typically, the store issues a preferred-customer card to a customer who presents the card to a cashier whenever paying for purchases. The store then collects data that may be used in constructing a customer profile while the customer is rewarded for participation in the program by receiving discounts on certain items.
While this system provides some limited information, the customer profile is nonetheless fragmentary. For example, no information comparable to the conversion efficiency is provided since the customer provides no information if he chooses not to make a purchase; the vendor remains completely unaware that a customer may have chosen to browse in the store but decided not to buy anything. Furthermore, the customer profile provided by a customer loyalty program does not address the problem of tracking customer movement across establishments since individual vendors remain isolated.
There is accordingly a need for a method and system for improved customer tracking.